His father has beaten him to death here.
-- Narrator (Prologue)

Importance: This sentence in the Prologue of the novel describes the fear and hate people have for those who turn out to have orogenic abilities. Essun’s husband has beaten their three-year-old son to death because he discovered the boy was an orogene.

From birth, an orogene child can stop a shake; even without training, you are orogene.
-- Schaffa (Chapter 2)

Importance: Schaffa explains to Damaya when he first meets her what she is and of what power she is capable.

Then he thinks, because he’s a levelheaded fellow and that’s why Tirimo elected him, and you see in his face the moment when you go from being Jija’s wife to Uche’s mother to rogga’s mother to, oh Earth, rogga, too.
-- Narrator (Chapter 3)

Importance: Essun credits Rask with thinking and not immediately reacting because it has recently been discovered that she is an orogene. Rask...